Author
Topic: Tomme de Savoie (Read 2750 times)

I had today off so I decided to make a cheese. I wanted to try some different techniques so a washed curd Tomme was what I decided to go with. Was thinking about a Reblochon but I don't have enough molds to do a three gallon make and get the right form factor.

Heated milk to 88 degrees and added starter and mold. Ph of the milk was 6.92 to start. I don't know if it's the meter or if all the milk around here is alkaline.Ripened to 45 minutes until pH was 6.78.Added diluted rennet and got a floc in exactly 10 minutes (39 drops gives 13 or so in the creamline milk I can get so I guess I should use less in raw milk.)Floc factor 3.5xCut after 35 minutes total. Strong curd! Cut to pea sized (1/4) inch.Healed the curd for 10 minutes then started to raise to 92 deg over the next 15 minutes while gently stirring.Removed 1/2 gallon whey and replaced with 130 degree spring water. Stirred 10 minutes.Removed 1/2 gallon whey and replaced with 130 degree spring water.Second addition yielde 100.5 degrees.Stirred for about 30 minutes until the curd matted slightly but still could be separated when pressed in the palm.Drained whey and formed curd under remaining whey into pile approximately the size of my mold and let it mat for 10 min.pH now 6.45Sprayed cheesecloth with vinegar and pressed the curd into the mold.Pressed under warm whey 15 min with .2 psi. decent knit already but the wheel is very soft and flimsy.Flipped pressed under warm whey 30 minutes. pH now 5.8.next press will be at room temp for 1 hour with 8 pounds pressure total. pH 5.6Hit pH of 5.35 after 5 more hours so into the brine it went for 12 hours.Knit looks really good and it smells nice. It's in the room temperature drying phase now. Since this place is practically a desert it shouldn't take more than a day or two even in the covered cake plate.

Will post pic's at next flip.

i plan on the standard rind wash of daily for 10 days then every other day for a week and then every four days until it's ready to dry off.

And the picture.....Actually the second pressing for 30 min was probably kind of light due to the geometry of things I had set up but I fixed that for the one hour press.

After an hour in the press, the knit is looking good. It's really moist still. It will be one of those dunlap cheeses if I take it out of the mold anytime soon. It's in for two hours now.....5.4 on the pH......it always comes on fast in the end....almost like a exponential growth of the bacteria...

Anyone got any ideas on the intial pH of my milk??? This is the second batch where it was very high 6.85-6.90. Different brands and the same acidification profile....very very slow to start and then rapidly increasing.

Oh well, I am hoping this will be good cheese and have a cool stinky, moldy, interesting rind.

Mike, what kind of stinky rind are you going for? B linens or more natural molds? In my experience the natural molds of a dryer (B linens seems to like the moist situations) rind aren't that stinky. With the PLA you'll have some stink for sure.....how do you envision this rind's end result? And yes, Please do post photos regularly!!!

I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen but I envision washing it for a start to get the B. Linens going to get the pungency up there a bit and some nice reddish orangish color. After that if the Linens doesn't die back naturally I might dry it a bit to let the fuzzier stuff have a go at it. What I want it to look like is a dense orangish brown rind that looks like the pictures I've seen when I look in all the books. Maybe a dusting of white powdery stuff to decorate it.

Right now it's drying. Under the cake topper it's staying about 78-83% and it's taking a while to dry. If I left the top off it would be dry already since the RH here runs about 40% but I think that is the source of my rinds not really taking off. Even in the dorm fridge I use for a cave, it's very difficult to get it above 70-75%. I have a stilton in there now and I have it under a bowl so I have to take it out for a walk pretty much daily so it can get some air. It's looking good though. I'm pretty sure the RH under the bowl is around 95% but in such a closed environment if i don't take it out daily it starts to produce ammonia. I've thought about rigging an oxygenator to the fridge that only runs when the fridge runs but am not sure that would be a good solution.

Looking good, Mike. I had a fairly high pH recently...6.82. I'm surprised.

Sorry about your premium-priced raw milk. I thought mine was bad at $9.99/gallon.

-Boofer-

I"ve been looking around. It might be cheaper at the farmers market but they only have it on Sundays and that isn't the best day to make cheese for me since I have to work the next day and can't really do any fun cheese things until I get off. I might be able to get it early Sunday (1000) but that still isn't optimal since it's an hour and a half round trip and of course I'd have to stick around long enough to eat there (great food vendors) etc.....Starting a cheese make at 1400 isn't really going to cut it for the most part for me. I"m jealous of folks that can get really fresh raw milk for cheap and when ever they want it. I can't tell how long the milk has been at the store I can find it at (Jimbo's), I just buy the ones with the longest expiry dates. I assume either a one or two week shelf life but am not sure.

This batch was really high in pH. Not sure what the deal is since the creamline I get from a different store was very high last time too. Could be they both came from the same dairy under different labels I suppose. Oh well, I'll make do with what I can get.

B2tF, From the first post: "1/8 tsp PLA (the flavor of Savoie in a pouch it says)"

Mike, a bit of caution: PLA produces a lovely, stinky cheese, but be very careful in your affinage. Despite ripening containers, I managed to cross contaminate every cheese in my cave. I managed to wash my montasios well enough to mostly eliminate it, but the manchego went crazy with it and to a lesser extent a mutschli. I wasn't working my way through the cheese alphabet, I swear. Thorough cave decontamination allowed me to move on with non-stinkers.

I suggest if there are other cheeses needing your attention, take care of them first. Wash your hands thoroughly or use fresh gloves when changing types.

Luckily, I got the controller for the second fridge in last week. (Two dorm fridges now, youngest is going to study abroad in Japan for a year) I'm going to try to keep the ones that look to be stinky segregated. Good suggestion on the gloves, I've got a couple of boxes of nitrile gloves for when I do composite work with epoxy. They should work even though they aren't blue. I've pretty much resigned myself to ripening boxes inside the caves....gotta love the desert clime.

I'm being slightly tongue in cheek due to the statement by the manufacturer (or at least attributed to the manufacturer on one of the web sites). I wanted to try something new techniques wise (washed curd) and Linuxboy's description that washing the curd will bring out the nuttiness of the milk kind of drew me in. Also this is a fairly mild cheese and while I like cheese that are kind of in your face, I'm trying to break in my wife. She's a trooper but some of the more aromatic cheeses can be a challenge. We did buy an Epoise from the local cheesemonger here in San Diego and it was a success but it wasn't that stinky.

Having lotso f fun so far. I like the technical aspects of the make and then watching it grow and change before you get to enjoy it is really cool. If only I could find milk cheaper. Even the creamline I can get is over 8 bucks a gallon and I looked and they use htst pasturization. The curds are no where near as firm and strong as these were.

I stuck it in the cave last night. It's hard to see in the picture but there is the beginnings of a white coating which I assume is the GC from the PLA. I flipped this one often to try to even out the concavity of the sides. It's pretty symmetrical so I'm happy with it. Now it's on a basswood (that is what I had on hand) board in the "isolation cave" reserved for infectious cheeses. I plan on washing the rind for the next ten days using the standard routine (flip and wash the upper face and sides every day) for ten days and then reduce the washing to see what grows. I made up a wash of 2/3 cup Zinfadel, 4/3 cup spring water, 1 T salt, and a pinch of PLA for good luck. lt should be an interesting transformation as time goes on.

As an aside, I had a piece of Beaufort d'Alpage that I brought for lunch. It turns out I hit the jackpot and got the spot that had been core sampled (can't make myself say "triered".) Toward the rind it looked a little gnarly but when I ate it it had a really awesome blue flavor. Too bad I ate it or I'd use it to culture another cheese. I wonder if some sort of blue alpine cheese is possible.........

I plan on washing the rind for the next ten days using the standard routine (flip and wash the upper face and sides every day)

I guess I'm a stubborn learner...I just wash the entire wheel, front-back-sides, all at once. I do rest it on an open weave mat instead of a board most of the time, so that probably answers the unasked question of why doesn't it mold on the bottom. I currently am doing that with my Saint Paulin #2.

I really want to do a real smear ripened cheese. I was thinking about a reblochon but the St Paulins look really good too. What size molds did you use for what amount of milk to get two cheeses in the right form factor? Now that I've got the isolation cave going the sky's the limit. I'm going to use the next year or so to try different styles and see what I really like to make. I've got to get as much in this summer as I can though, grad school is going to eat up a lot of my time starting in the fall. Luckily since I work for the government, I get the next 11 Friday's off....if I keep to three gallon makes that'll be around 30 pounds of cheese. I need to start making some things too that need aging.....I'd like to enter in the San Diego county fair next year for some feedback.